[360] Big scratch in silver door panel

Hi all,

I just badly scratched the silver door panel (driver's side). The scratch is a good 1.5 inch long and pretty deep.
Any idea of I could fix that without having to buy a complete new panel?
Thanks in advance,

Steve.

 

No need to buy a new panel. A good body shop can make it indictable.

 

Is the scratch in the middle of the door or more towards one end or the other?

If in the middle, a top notch shop should be able to blend the base coat color and clear the whole door panel with excellent results. If the scratch is more towards either end of the door, the base coat blend may need to go into the adjacent panel-- especially for a silver color car. Silver and white are two difficult colors. I have a professional Restoration and Custom shop. We do this often for our customers' vehicles. I would choose a shop that has a paint rep that can use the "gun" on the paint surface to "read" the color for proper mixing and matching. Not always a 100% spot on but really close and a good painter will be able to adjust the color to a near perfect match via a blend.

Just be sure to have the entire door clear coated. Blending agents always leave a line--- eventually. Most blending agents for the clear coat are effective initially, but over time show a line. It's just a trait of the new urethane clears. Not always really noticeable, but always there after time. Remember the entire Paint Products industry is based on collision repair and the standards are a bit lower than we would like for our cars. As I'm sure the metrics prove that most repaired cars (as well as any "new" cars) are not kept very long before being traded in. And that clear coat "line" --- not noticeable by most folks and in fact may not be noticed at all if indeed the car is traded in within a few years.

I know this sucks to have this happen, but once repaired perfectly, you'll soon forget it ever happened. I know I've been there. Good Luck.

 

The scratch is in the middle of the panel close to the bottom. The area where you could hit the door with your left foot when getting out of the car when not paying attention. Probably what happened to me.
I'll ask the body shop that has the best reviews in my area...Sometimes they are pretty relluctant on working on exotics but let's see.
Anyway, thanks a lot for all of those very valuable infos.

 

When I had my 360 seats re-dyed i asked the shop to repaint the silver door panels. easy job and they looked brand new. don't hesitate

 

Powder coat is another option. Of course you'll need to do both doors if you go that route.

 

A good used one will run you about $300 and swaps in 15 minutes, that matt silver may be difficult to match correctly.

 

My apologies, I misunderstood where the scratch was when I read your post. I assumed you were talking about the outer door skin not the interior door panel that is silver. Blending is probably not an option. As others have said, probably just repainting the entire piece is the answer. Tough to match the look and semi-matte finish, but it can be done (as the post by Bob in Texas) . Probably will need to go to a really good restoration shop that has the time and patience to do it as well as the learned "tricks" in using the materials that will work to get the piece to match the other interior stuff that is that matte looking silver. I don't know if a general body shop will be the place to go. But the results will be pretty obvious, so give 'em a shot.

 

Collector or driver? I repainted and clear coated my center console, looks good but wasn't professional. Will probably do it again in the future and match my door panels. Nobody notices those parts, but you know it's there..

 

My mistake - I thought the OP was talking about the outside of the car, not the inside

Regarding repainting the inner piece, we could 100% match the paint including the gloss level. Our materials are very specialized and we have many colors in stock to match leather such as, Crema, Beige, Cuoio. We have some greys too. But, it make cost as much to refinish as a new part so probably not worth it.

 

Not if that part is plastic

 

I believe its aluminum. At any rate, previous posters have reported good results with powder coating. I should have said theat.

 

If aluminum, no issue. But PC baking is around 400 F and you can't do that to plastic or you will have a puddle

 

Steve,
As for a local recommendation, I have had great results with Campbell Auto Restoration, in the past.

 

Some of the early cars had sand blast finish, then they went to paint

 

I had black marks from shoes rubbing against the panels. I removed the panels and sand blasted them. A local Powder Coating company do their thing, they did a perfect color match. These are way easier to clean and durable against getting marked up.